Union workers are also protected if a casino changes ownership, and a limited shop steward system was expanded to include up to 75 stewards per building.
Workers’ fears of losing their jobs to subcontracting were quelled, thanks to limitations placed on the casinos’ ability to lease space to nonunion restaurants or bars, or other entertainment establishments. It’s such a big fight because the same companies, same national chains, don’t provide free health care elsewhere because workers aren’t strong enough to fight for it.” “We will have an example nationally of contracts that have free health care up to that point. “The fact is, we now have a contract that carries our free health care to 2009,” said Scott Shuster, a former Local 54 rank and filer and current UNITE HERE organizer. Most workers were positive about a number of gains made in the settlement. Close to 6,000 bartenders, cocktail servers, housekeepers, food servers, cooks, and other members of UNITE HERE Local 54 from seven of Atlantic City’s 12 casinos approved the contract by a 96 percent margin. Ten thousand casino workers in Atlantic City, New Jersey, returned to work November 4 after a month-long walkout, the longest strike the city’s industry has seen since gambling was legalized there 26 years ago.
